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I need some Beer & Chips! Can you get me some? – The new way of personal assistance and how it impacts our society

I need some Beer & Chips! Can you get me some? – The new way of personal assistance and how it impacts our society

On the 26th of August the Vice President of Messaging products at Facebook, David Marcus, announced on his personal Facebook Page that Facebook is beginning to test a new service within the Facebook Messenger called “M”. With that post...
Semantic Search Servants: Facebook’s M and the new way of searching the web

Semantic Search Servants: Facebook’s M and the new way of searching the web

“You think I’m weird?” “Kind of.” “Why?” “Well, you seem like a person but you’re just a voice in a computer.” – Theodore meets his new virtual assistant, whom he later falls in love with (Jonze, Her). Facebook M...
Facebook in the Spotlight of the Dark Web

Facebook in the Spotlight of the Dark Web

Facebook is blocking logins with Tor browser. This is crazy. Please help us to share!“ (Facebook, 2013) published Tor Project on Facebook on June 18th 2013. This is not the case anymore. Facebook opened a service for all users...
Could Snapchat’s new feature challenge Facebook’s dominance in terms of trust and privacy?

Could Snapchat’s new feature challenge Facebook’s dominance in terms of trust and privacy?

What’s the next Facebook or is there one? Ask many, including John D. Sutter (2012), who suggests that this question is not only wishful thinking, but an increasingly likely reality. Jamie Turner argues that although Facebook is still “king...
Should companies care for social media webcare?

Should companies care for social media webcare?

Who does not use social networking sites these days? For millions of people around the world social networking sites are part of their daily routine. This phenomenon has major advantages for companies; it offers them the possibility to enhance...
What can we learn from a Facebook clone?

What can we learn from a Facebook clone?

  What is the future of Facebook? With the fast-evolving nature of new media, it is interesting to think of the possible scenarios for the further development. One way to do so is to look at a former Facebook clone...
SHOW ME THE DATA! 2014

SHOW ME THE DATA! 2014

On Thursday afternoon March 27th seven interactive data visualization projects will be presented, developed by Master students of the University of Amsterdam. Show Me The Data is an annual event which is open to the public, click here for...
We Are Dread: A Review of the Dread Exhibition at De Hallen, Haarlem

We Are Dread: A Review of the Dread Exhibition at De Hallen, Haarlem

    By Lani Shadduck & Lucy Chinen “Dread trembles in my pocket. Dread chirps incessantly. Dread flashes and bounces. Dread summons me a hundred times a day to pay attention to my phone or my laptop, and stiffening...
Are You Ready To Get Tinderized?*

Are You Ready To Get Tinderized?*

How Are You Looking Online Today? Looking for a date but too shy to approach anyone face-to-face? Lucky for you, the market for smartphone apps that connects people from a distance is rapidly extending. One of those apps is...
Bang With Friends – are the ‘hook up’ sites the future of dating?

Bang With Friends – are the ‘hook up’ sites the future of dating?

By Annika Kuyper and Jakub Dutka Bang With Friends is a casual sex app, launched in January 2013. How does it work? It is dead simple. The app connects to your Facebook account and downloads your friends list. Subsequently,...
Tinder: Readily Combustible Material

Tinder: Readily Combustible Material

“Readily combustible material, such as dry twigs, used to kindle fires.” Tinder is the new application that tells you if the people you like/ want to sleep with like you too. All you have to do is download the...
Brazil Left Facebook

Brazil Left Facebook

Although it’s winter in Brazil, the so-called ‘Brazilian Spring’ has clearly arisen in June and July 2013. The protests in Brazil show parallels to the ‘Arab Spring’ demonstrations (Dec. 2010-Feb. 2011), in which network communications were used to form a grassroots movement. Through...
Social media – the new watchdog?

Social media – the new watchdog?

September 5th the former leader of the Norwegian far right party (Progress Party), Carl I. Hagen, wrote a status update on his Facebook-profile. Here he blamed the current government for the murder of a 21-year old girl, Anja Weløy...
Social network is aging. What’s next?

Social network is aging. What’s next?

We’re hopelessly addicted to social platforms as if it would be still revolutionary in our lives but is anyone thinking about it to be aging? People start getting bored with social networks because it does change in the way...
The Quantified Self & Big Data: causing a new turn in science?

The Quantified Self & Big Data: causing a new turn in science?

How much time do you spend on Facebook? How many of your friends are living in Amsterdam? What is the best time to wake up in the morning? These questions are hard to answer and can take a lot...
Virality through Facebook

Virality through Facebook

Facebook is now more than nine years old and it is very interesting to see what changes Facebook is going through. It started out with Facemash in 2003, developed into thefacebook.com and now we all know it as Facebook....
The Social Catwork

The Social Catwork

The project The Social Catwork is based on the initial concept of Facebook, where the users were asked to pick which person out of two pictures they find more attractive. Our version, however, gives the user a choice of...
Be Careful whom You Friend. A Life of a Fake Facebook Profile.

Be Careful whom You Friend. A Life of a Fake Facebook Profile.

Eva Janssen was born on the 15th October 2012. Being already 24 years old, she attends the University of Amsterdam. She is quite a usual girl. She listens to The Beatles and Moby, she watches Friends while eating Nutella...
Breaching Experiments on Facebook

Breaching Experiments on Facebook

Breaching Experiments Two recent events on my Facebook newsfeed made me think of breaching experiments, and what their possible value would be within the context of research on (relatively) new online social environments. The breaching experiment is a research...
Hey Zuckerberg! You’re late!

Hey Zuckerberg! You’re late!

One particular phenomenon I’ve always been very interested in is Virtual Reality (VR); a technology created in the 90s that places the user in an artificial environment generated by a computer. The goal of VR is to create a...
Captives of the Social: Facebook and Digital Pantopticism

Captives of the Social: Facebook and Digital Pantopticism

As a network, the Web is usually connoted as an open-ended, anarchic and non-hierarchic environment. Compared to previous modes of organization, its distributed nature is considered an improvement over centralized and decentralized one-to-many communications and productions. (( Alexander R....
Social media in Iraq: in search of the truth

Social media in Iraq: in search of the truth

Like elsewhere in the Middle East, in Iraq social media is a fast growing way of communication. Contrary to the situation ten years ago, the use of mobile phone is nowadays nearly universal. Internet cafes are booming and the...
Facebook + Performance Society = ?

Facebook + Performance Society = ?

Last week, the documentary ‘Nooit Meer Slapen’ (No more Sleeping) was broadcasted on the Dutch television. The documentary stated that at 3 o’clock in the night, over 1 million Dutch citizens are wide-awake. ‘At home, night rest is becoming...
The Prosecution of Jokes on Social Media: Lets Ask the Audience.

The Prosecution of Jokes on Social Media: Lets Ask the Audience.

Last week a 19 year old man from Lancashire in the UK was found guilty of section 127 of the Communications Act; a British law which makes it an offence to send any message that would be considered ‘grossly...